ITS SNOWING!! And Special Olympics Basketball.
 

Egads!! It is snowing!! :eek: Great white fluffy flakes!! And to think that Mark, Jr., and I were umpiring women's college softball in Titusville, Florida from March 07th to 13th, where the temperatures were in the upper 80Fs and lower 90Fs.

Our first diamond sport game of the OhioHSAA and MichiganHSAA season is next Tuesday and I am having my doubts.

Well, we still have the Ohio Special Olympics Basketball Final Four this weekend and then our basketball season is officially over until Summer team camps.

MTD, Sr.

Today it's supposed to reach the mid 70's so I'm going for a long jog at lunch. Tomorrow I'm leaving for Ocean City, MD to officiate a weekend tournament and we are expecting snow by the time I start my drive. Bi-polar weather (there's a pun in there somewhere).

Gee guys - it's predicted to hit 72 degrees and partly cloudy here in Portland today. I'm probably going to spend a lot of time out on the porch. Sorry. :p

BTW - MTD great job working the Special Olympics. Thank you. :)

Odd Year ...
 

I've been involved with Special Olympics Unified Basketball for about fifteen years (and the regular Special Olympics for the twenty-five years before that). I've worked all skill levels of Unified Basketball.

For the past few years I've worked the higher skill level games. Basically just toss the jump ball to start the game, and call out of bounds. Occasionally we would have to decide if a player was skilled enough to not travel, or to not double dribble, and call the game based on that.

This year was different. Same skill level as in past years, but the kids wanted to play defense, so we let them. I honestly can't remember the last time we shot free throws in past years, but this year we lined the kids up to shoot free throws about a half dozen times, and reported non-shooting fouls a few more times.

One player seemed to dominate when he was in the game. He was a pretty good player. At one point in the game, he made a crossover move by carrying the ball to beat a defender, so I called a carry, maybe my first one ever in a Special Olympics game. I happened to be positioned by his coach, who said, "Thanks. He's been using that move all season long. I've been telling in that he's eventually going to get carrying called on him, and you were the first one to do it. Thanks".

Here in Ohio, the Ohio Special Olympics requires all basketball officials to be OhioHSAA registered for both the regular season and for the post-season tournament. Come tournament time, the Ohio S.O. has eight different classifications: Unified, Open, Adult Male I, II, III, and IV, Male School Age and Women's.

The games (regular season and post-season tournament) are played using NFHS/OhioHSAA Rules. The officials, both during the regular season and the tournament are to officiate the games as they would a regular JrHS or HS game; meaning we officiate the game per the level of play. That also means that the higher the level classification, the better the skill of the players.

I have officiated two Unified Division Championship games and the skill level is very high. The Open and Adult Male I and II skill level is very good and one had better be ready to officiate those games as if they were freshmen or jr. varsity level of play. Coaches expect the game to be called correctly and players are to be T'ed as per the sportsmanship rules, and yes I have had to T-up a player both during the regular season and during the post-season tournament.

The post-season tourament has three levels: Area, Section, and Final Four. And one year during West Secionn Final I had to T-up a HC, and what made it worse, I had to T him up again a few minutes later (yes I tossed him). These are the only two TFs I have ever called agains a S.O. coach. Even the venue manager could not believe that the coach lost it; needless to say this HC was not coach S.O. the next year.

One year when BGSU men's and women's basketball team were still playing in Andereson Arena, I had a semi-final game where a player tied the Anderson Arena record (including men's and women's college, and boys' and girls' H.S.) for three-point FGs. This player was on fire and BGSU SID went to his office to confirm it; unfortunately it was in a losing effort.

MTD, Sr.